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Waymo offering free rides to people in its self-driving minivans

Google Inc.’s self-driving car unit Waymo is offering free rides in its autonomous minivans to people in the greater Phoenix metropolitan area of Arizona, the company has confirmed.

Waymo announced that it’s offering its services to members of the public as part of its “early rider” program. The program is intended on cataloguing how autonomous cars will factor into everyday lives’ of people.

Interested people can sign up on Waymo’s official website, and the company will chose riders depending on the kinds of free trips they want to take as well as their willingness to use autonomous vehicles as their principal mode of haulage.

John Krafcik, chief executive of Waymo, said, “We want as many people as possible to experience our technology, and we want to bring self-driving cars to more communities sooner.”

Krafcik also made it clear that a test driver will be behind the wheel during the ride. However, he insisted that the vehicle will drive without any human intervention as long as possible.

The free rides are currently available only to residents of Phoenix and its surrounding towns, such as Chandler, Gilbert and Tempe.